The present invention relates to reel handling equipment, and more particularly concerns apparatus for removing a wire from a conveyor, holding the reel while permitting rotation, presenting it for operation to be carried out with respect to a wire wound on the reel, and then placing the reel in a storage location.
In a system for manufacture and assembly of harnesses of electrical wire or optical fiber, a wire or fiber is cut to a selected length and wound upon a reel with both ends projecting therefrom. As used herein the term "wire" is deemed to include both electrically and optically conductive elements. The reel is then mounted on a conveyor for transport to various end finishing stations at which wire ends are stripped and connecting terminals are affixed. In this system the reel is then moved to an insertion apparatus in which an end of the wire is inserted into an aperture of a multi-pin connector, and the reel, with wire still partly wound thereon, is then moved to a storage location near the connector. A wire processing and reel winding apparatus of such a system is described in co-pending U.S. patent application for Wire Processing Method and Apparatus, Ser. No. 615,933, filed May 31, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,558. Terminal insertion apparatus for use in such a system is described in U.S. patent application for Method and Apparatus For Contact Insertion, Ser. No. 027,939, filed Mar. 19, 1987. and a reel of wire and carousel storage therefor is described in co-pending U.S. patent application for Reel and Reel Handling System, Ser. No. 748,339, filed June 24, 1985.
In another co-pending U.S. patent application for Method and Apparatus For Terminal Insertion Ser. No. 646,949, filed Sept. 4, 1984 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,503, there is described a harness assembly system in which a reel of wire is presented to an insertion head which grasps the wire and inserts first one end of the wire and then the other into respective connectors after routing the wire in a selected path between the connectors and concomitantly withdrawing the wire from the rotating reel. The disclosure of each application identified above is incorporated by this reference as though fully set forth herein.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for handling and manipulating a reel of wire or fiber in a variety of modes and procedures, and, in particular, in a manner suitable for use in systems referred to in the above-identified patent applications.